BULK UP

I often wonder why people buy in bulk. If you have a large family and unlimited funds to spend at the time you see the bargain I guess it’s a great idea. It also helps to have room to store those cases of bargain priced items.

My problem when my kids were young was I never had unlimited funds and was lucky to be able to buy the necessities. Now that I have more disposable cash it”s just the two of us in need and no room to store bulk items in this 1145 square foot home!

We don’t need a 16 pack of paper towels or a box of 120 washing powder pods. The 480 count crate of dryer sheets would take me a year to dispose of and by then that nice smell would have vanished.

These were a few of the items pointed out to me by H as we walked through SAM’S today after checking on tire prices.

“Where would we store all that? We have no room,” I protested, as I steered him clear of the case of paper towels and a six-pack of filters for the air conditioner unit.

We slipped out the door as they were closing with only a 15 pack of apriums (an apricot and plum?) 3 1/2 pounds of plums, a carton of grapes, and 2 pounds of strawberries.

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About Elle Knowles

Elle Knowles lives in the Florida Panhandle with her husband and off-at-college-most-of-the-time son. She has four daughters, one son, and eleven beautiful grandchildren. 'Crossing the Line' is her first novel. The sequel 'What Line' is a work in progress. Recently published is Coffee-Drunk Or Blind - a nonfiction story of homesteading in the Alaska wilderness with her parents and four siblings, told through letters by her mother and remembered accounts from the family.

I would love paper towels for the rest of my life but haven’t the room. My mother had closets filled with soap and napkins…toilet paper, cu-tips. I think I inherited that desire to always be ready but alas, no room.

What bothers me is that the grocery store, the nice, ordinary grocery store, has stopped carrying nice, ordinary sizes of toilet paper. The smallest package they have is twelve rolls. I have a tiny house, and there’s one of me. Fortunately, one of those twelve roll packages is still recycled, but really! I mean, I’ve got a house, so there’s closet space and under the sink and stuff (though most of it’s filled up with junk because I’m a terrible housekeeper), but what do single people living in apartments do?

I love Costco and my mom shops there because she never likes to run out. I think it’s because she didn’t have a lot growing up, but she makes sure there’s at least an extra toilet paper or case of bottled water, like she’s preparing for the apocalypse, which soothes her so no biggie.

I think that’s true with most older people. Harry saw his mother do it so you take it from there. She did come up in the conversation. I told him I had no intention of using a room – Andrews bedroom – in our house for a storage unit or pantry as she had done! Lol! We argue about this constantly. 😉 ~Elle

Elle,
Ahh, well there you have it. A house with that sq./ft. Looking around here, most new houses are likely well over 3,000sq./ft? Even with a third person in the house that’s a lot of storage. Yet the businesses renting storage space, are booming. Companies like Wal-mart and Costco, in fact any of the box stores, are taking advantage of that. Instead of warehousing, they have customers with plenty of it. So, like fishing they set the bait and reel ’em in. One, honking, great package at a time. That’s why it’s known as a consumer society. Twenty four razor blades for $60 It’s a snap….? I can remember a time when razor blades were 6d a package. They worked just fine then. Now we have three or four blades in place of one, roller balls and pivoting heads and even ones with soap and soother built right in. Heck, they even have blades that give the user the “unshaven look”? That’s why I have a beard… well not just that. ;-] Cheers Jamie

I read an article on razors the other day saying that one blade was just as good as three! This is how they make money by adding two extra and charging a fortune. Razor blades would not take up too much space to store though. ~Elle

The flyer today, from Costco. Tells me $4.50 off the cost of 24 disposable ones. That one I never got ? Disposable razors? I used to travel a lot; as a railroad engineer. The regular razor worked just fine, besides it was a whole lot more comfortable than a “disposable” one. Just looking at pallet when I was there at Costco earlier. I thought, “there’s a whole lot of plastic pollution, right there”? These people are just criminals, posturing as respectful business. Giving the people what they want? Is just killing our environment.

Just so they can sit out on the water in their fancy cabin cruisers, surrounded by plastic detritus … go figure?

I understand! I go to Costco once a month, but our large family eats or uses almost everything I buy there. Its an expensive trip, even for us! But I like that I have supplies for a long time and I don’t have to worry about running our for a while. Except that I bought a big box of garbage bags, almost a year ago, and we have finally run out. Sounds like a yummy fruit salad though!!
vicki